Free Republic

Bob Keane, who founded the West Coast independent label Del-Fi Records in the 1950s and is best known for discovering and recording rock legend Ritchie Valens, has died. He was 87. Keane, who survived non- Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed when he was 80, died of renal failure Saturday in an assisted living home in Hollywood, said his son, Tom Keane. "He was like the original independent record man in those days," said Tom Keane, a songwriter and record producer. "He was the guy going out and finding talent and developing it and getting it out to the masses." A clarinet player...

Soupy Sales died at age 83 yesterday. He hosted an afternoon kiddie show that reached its height of popularity in the mid-1960s. He was totally unlike other kids-show hosts of that, or any other, era. He wasn’t soft-spoken, like Mr. Rogers; he wasn’t grandfatherly, like Captain Kangaroo; he didn’t want to teach you anything, like Mr. Wizard. What Soupy was was a unique combination of silly and hip. He mixed slapstick with self-conscious irony. He was forever getting a pie thrown in his face. He talked to puppets, especially two — White Fang and Black Tooth — that were really...

LOS ANGELES – The songwriter who wrote the catchy theme songs to "The Addams Family" and "Green Acres" television shows has died. Vic Mizzy was 93. .......................................... Mizzy has said that he didn't mind if people only remember him for the finger snaps at the start of the "The Addams Family" theme song. After all, he said "two snaps got me a mansion in Bel Air."

Sources at the Iranian opposition said that the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has died. The Iranian police have increased their activities in the streets of Teheran recently. For the time being, it is known that Khamenei lost consciousness on Monday afternoon and was hospitalized. Only his son and personal therapist have the right to visit Ayatollah at hospital. Khamenei reportedly lapsed into coma, although spokespeople for the Iranian opposition say that the spiritual leader has passed away. The Iranian administration has not commented the situation yet. Several western publications said that the information...

Dickie Peterson, the singer and bass player of Blue Cheer, who are considered another one of the first heavy metal bands, sadly passed away this morning in Germany at the age of sixty one. The cause of death has yet to be announced but he had been ill for some time. Blue Cheer released their first album, "Vincebus Eruptum" in 1968 and released a further five albums until a hiatus. The band returned with a new album in 1984 and released two more albums in 1990 and 1991 before another break. The bands last record was a collection of re-recorded...

American photographer Irving Penn, best known for his work in the fashion world, has died in his New York City apartment at the age of 92. The news was reported this afternoon by his brother, the director Arthur Penn. Hailed as a father of fashion photography, and one of the most respected photographers of the last century... Working with precise composition and unfettered settings, Penn pioneered several techniques, and his early portraiture work was unique for putting his celebrity subjects against plain white or grey backgrounds... or by placing them in a corner to achieve dramatic effect. While primarily using...

LONDON – Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46. Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death. Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon,...

Drummer Bobby Graham, who played on some of the best-known hits of the 1960s, has died at the age of 69. Graham was heard on number one singles by The Kinks, Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield, and said he appeared on a total of 40 UK top five hits. Graham also claimed The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein asked him to join the band after Pete Best left in 1962... Graham's website said he performed on songs including Petula Clark's Downtown, Englebert Humperdinck's Release Me and The Kinks' You Really Got Me. Other notable appearances included Dusty Springfield's I Only Want...

DANBURY, Conn. (AP) - Mary Travers, one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, has died. The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, says Travers died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut on Wednesday. She was 72 and had battled leukemia for several years. Travers joined forces with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey in the early 1960s.

Jim Carroll, poet and punk rocker, dead at 60 (AP) – 4 hours ago NEW YORK — Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker who wrote "The Basketball Diaries," died Friday. He was 60. He died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan, his ex-wife Rosemary Carroll told the New York Times. In the 1970s, Carroll was a fixture of the burgeoning downtown New York art scene, where he mixed with artists such as Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Larry Rivers and Robert Mapplethorpe. His life was shaped by drug use, which he wrote about extensively.

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

CBS' Don Hewitt -- Fidel Castro Enabler By Humberto Fontova Forty years after his media advance-work helping install a Stalinist regime in Cuba the legendary Don Hewitt of CBS still seemed proud of his work as a Castro media auxiliary. During that interim, over 20,000 Cubans were murdered by firing squad and beaten or starved to death in forced labor camps. Another 70-80 thousand were ripped apart by sharks or drowned in the Florida straits (attempting to flee a nation that previously took in more immigrants per-capita than the U.S.) If Mr Hewitt had uttered a single word of remorse...

Journalism: After the eulogies, the fact remains that "the most trusted man in America" betrayed that trust. He helped snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam and tried hard to do the same in Iraq.President Obama on Friday praised Walter Cronkite as a journalistic icon, calling the CBS anchor the "voice of certainty in an uncertain world." More to the point, he was the father of advocacy journalism, the patron saint of media bias. He went from reporting news to recreating it in his own image. Far from the image of the patriotic war correspondent, Cronkite was a...

NEW YORK (CBS News) "60 Minutes"spokesman Kevin Tedesco confirmed 86-year-old Don Hewitt has died. Earlier this year, Hewitt was diagnosed with a small, contained tumor. Hewitt was already a veteran CBS newsman in 1968 when he created "60 Minutes," pioneering the TV newsmagazine format. He served as executive producer of the program until his retirement in 2004. Hewitt has been honored with the second annual Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he was awarded the Founders Emmy by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He's...

The sky grew dimmer on Sunday, as another great ray of light from the Sun Records roster, Billy Lee Riley, died. Riley, who'd been battling cancer since May, died at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., after being admitted on Saturday. He was 75. Although Riley had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, which had spread to his bones, his wife, Joyce Riley, said the singer was feeling optimistic. "We weren't thinking the end was coming so soon," said Joyce. "He was actually feeling better lately. So the very end was unexpected. But, he went peacefully." One of...

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with the use of one teleprompter after the other fell and broke at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, July 13, 2009.

Sky Saxon, founder of the brilliant ’60s garage band the Seeds, died Thursday morning at St. David’s Hospital. The newly minted Austinite, born Richard Marsh, was hospitalized Monday with what doctors suspected was an infection of the internal organs, but cause of death has not yet been released. Saxon fell ill last Thursday, but performed at Saturday at Antone’s with recent Austin collaborators Shapes Have Fangs. Sky’s wife Sabrina Saxon posted news of his passing on Facebook this morning: “Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father....

ROME — A Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship during which an American passenger was killed has died in an Italian jail. Lawyer Sandro Clementi said Khaled Hussein died of a heart attack early Monday in a jail in Benevento, near Naples. He was 73.

Guitar legend Huey Long, the last surviving member of the original Ink Spots, died June 10 in Houston at the age of 105. Long was born in Sealy, Texas. He worked various jobs in the Houston area until he got his big break playing banjo in the Frank Davis Louisiana Jazz Band. In 1936, Bill Kenny, the leader of the Ink Spots, talked Long into leaving the jazz trio joining the Ink Spots. ...He moved back to Houston in the 90s, having written and arranged more than 80 songs. Long is survived by his daughter, Houston resident Anita Long, and...

Law enforcement sources said they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston, Va., home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. Virginia police say they found David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage company Freddie Mac, hanging in the basement of his Reston home, dead from an apparent suicide early this morning. (ABC News)The death was "an active investigation" and there were "no signs of foul play," Fairfax County police officer Sabrina Ruck said. Local police said they were called to Kellermann's home at 4:48am. Kellermann,...